A Knesset panel extended the mobile phone-data tracking system by the Shin Bet security service until May 26, giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less additional time than he had wanted.
Netanyahu’s cabinet will present a draft bill in the coming weeks to regulate the use of the counter-terror technology being used to spy on the public, and the legislation will need to meet the requirements set by the Supreme Court, according to a Reuters report. The public will have one week to discuss the bill before it will be submitted for Knesset approval.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the government must pass a law to continue the program, and that it can no longer rely on emergency measures.
According to data presented to the parliament’s intelligence subcommittee on Tuesday, 5,516 of 16,265 infected people were discovered by the surveillance program.
“Although it is aggressive and has privacy [issues], there is no other tool right now,” Ayelet Shaked, a former justice minister and member of the intelligence panel, told Reuters.
Critics say the program is a violation of rights and privacy, and that surveillance is no longer needed because coronavirus cases have dropped significantly. At the same time, the country has slowly begun to reopen.
